Barnes, James (28 December 1801–12 February 1869), railroad executive and soldier, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Captain William Barnes and Jane (maiden name unknown). He was educated at the Latin School of Boston and went into business after graduation; but he desired a military life and in 1825 secured an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Barnes was an excellent student and graduated fifth in the illustrious class of 1829, which included ...
Article
Barnes, James (1801-1869), railroad executive and soldier
D. Scott Hartwig
Article
Boyle, Jeremiah Tilford (1818-1871), soldier and railroad entrepreneur
Edward G. Longacre
Boyle, Jeremiah Tilford (22 May 1818–28 July 1871), soldier and railroad entrepreneur, was born in Mercer County, Kentucky, the son of John Boyle, a judge, and Elizabeth Tilford. His father was described as “one of the most conspicuous figures in the public life of Kentucky for more than a third of a century” (Levin, p. 157). Boyle was educated at Centre and Transylvania colleges in his native state and in 1839 graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). Admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1841, he practiced law in Harrodsburg and later that year in Danville. In 1842 he married Elizabeth Owsley Anderson; they had twelve children....
Article
Burnside, Ambrose Everett (1824-1881), soldier and businessman
Michael C. C. Adams
Burnside, Ambrose Everett (23 May 1824–13 September 1881), soldier and businessman, was born in Liberty, Indiana, the son of Pamelia Brown and Edghill Burnside, a law clerk and farmer. The Burnsides had nine children and only a modest income, so Ambrose received no more than a rudimentary education before starting work as an apprentice tailor in 1840. His father took advantage of a term in the state legislature to have the boy appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, which he entered on 1 July 1843. He graduated eighteenth out of thirty-eight cadets in the class of 1847 and was commissioned second lieutenant in the Third U.S. Artillery. His battery was serving in the Mexican War, and he joined it in Mexico City, too late to see action. Bored, he gambled away six months’ pay. Further embarrassment was prevented by a posting, in spring 1848, to Fort Adams, Rhode Island....
Image
Burnside, Ambrose Everett (1824-1881)
In
Ambrose E. Burnside Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-B8172-1625).
Article
Drake, Francis Marion (1830-1903), army officer, railroad promoter and executive, and governor of Iowa
H. Roger Grant
Drake, Francis Marion (30 December 1830–20 November 1903), army officer, railroad promoter and executive, and governor of Iowa, was born in the western Illinois hamlet of Rushville, the son of John Adams Drake, a merchant and small-time capitalist, and Harriet Jane O’Neal. Drake grew up in a family of modest means. In 1837 his father relocated the family to the raw frontier settlement of Fort Madison, Iowa, then part of Wisconsin Territory. The Drakes stayed in this Mississippi River community until March 1846, when they moved to inland Davis County. There Francis’s father founded the town of Drakesville and pursued agricultural and banking interests. Like his thirteen brothers and sisters Francis received rudimentary formal education. He attended public schools in Fort Madison, although he never graduated from high school. But Drake expanded his knowledge through his own initiative; he read widely and enthusiastically and associated with “learned” people....
Article
Dwight, William (1831-1888), soldier and businessman
Arthur W. Bergeron
Dwight, William (14 July 1831–21 April 1888), soldier and businessman, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of William Dwight and Elizabeth Amelia White, occupations unknown. After attending a private military academy, Dwight received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy in 1849. Because of poor grades he was dismissed from West Point on 31 January 1853. One of his subordinate officers during the Civil War later wrote that army gossip said that Dwight “was expelled from West Point on account of his drunkenness and shameless association with obscene women” (quoted in Bacon, p. 158). Dwight then entered the manufacturing business in Boston. He married Anna Robeson in 1856; the number of their children, if any, is unknown....
Article
Porter, Horace (1837-1921), soldier, businessman, and diplomat
Brooks D. Simpson
Porter, Horace (15 April 1837–29 May 1921), soldier, businessman, and diplomat, was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, the son of David Rittenhouse Porter, a businessman, politician, and governor, and Josephine McDermott. Educated at Lawrenceville Academy and the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard (1854–1855), he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (1855), graduating third in the class of 1860. Commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the Ordnance Branch, he remained at the academy as an artillery instructor before being assigned to the Watervliet Arsenal at Troy, New York....
Image
Porter, Horace (1837-1921)
In
Horace Porter. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-104938).
